Correlations among relativistic charged secondaries produced in π−–nucleus interactions at 340 GeV/c

Abstract

Correlations amongst fast charged secondaries produced in 340 GeV π−–nucleus collisions are examined. The findings of these investigations reveal that strong short-range correlations occur in the central plateau region; there is, however, no evidence for the presence of intrinsic long-range correlations. A backward asymmetry in the case of a nuclear target, which increases with increasing target size, is also observed. There are strong two-particle correlations in both forward and backward hemispheres and the excess number of particles that appear in the backward hemisphere due to heavier targets are envisaged to be produced through the decay of clusters.